got milk?
 

Guess what?

English language questions sometimes omit the subject pronoun.

Berb too.

Problem with that?

Best...

Rex

Too funny.

I meant &quot;<b>V&lt;/&gt;erb too&quot;, of course.
</b>

Very funny! Any other languages??

Good grief - - can't even end the <b>bold</b> correctly!

Oops! Left the subject out of a simple declarative sentence again.

Oh! And again!

Yikes! Fragment!

Don't worry, Rex. You write pretty one day. ;)

said that already. (smile)

Milk?

Hmmm - What would Rex be drinking tonight?

Myself, I think it's time for a vodka.

Vodka and milk?

Believe it or not, I believe some people would drink that vile combination. they certainly do drink scotch and milk, that nonsense I've seen plenty of!

omitting subject pronouns: sure, in Spanish. It was a little tricky when I was in Paris this Spring, to remember to say je &amp; tu, I &amp; you respectively. &quot;Tu&quot; is also the familiar &quot;you&quot; in Spanish, and I rarely use it. &quot;quieres cafe? Do you want coffee? I don't believe you can do that in French- anyone know about Italian? I would say &quot;comprendo&quot; meaning, &quot;I understand&quot; in Spanish, but I think I would have to say je comprends and io capisco for French and Spanish respectively.

Also, I am confusing myself- do I have to capitalize the names of the lanuages? the people? is it French or french? Got grammar?

oops, that was French &amp; Italian--io capisco--, of course

Ninasdream-This is EXACTLY the point I was making (albeit in a somewhat long-winded way) in the previous post about &quot;how do you say it in Italian&quot; You DO have to use the personal pronouns in French and Italian, but NOT in Spanish-in fact, in Spanish it sounds stilted-and you are taught in Spanish that the subject pronouns can be dropped, that the conjugated verb forms absent the personal pronoun work just fine. Also in German, as in English, personal pronouns are not omitted from conversation, unless in a very casual or colloquial way.

spygirl - got it now, thanks. Any ideas on when to cap french etc?

When writing in English, you must capitalize the names of foreign languages and peoples (French, the French, a French waiter). When writing in French, you do not (anglais, les am&eacute;ricains, une maison am&eacute;ricaine). I believe that is the rule in all romance languages.
In German, all nouns get capitalized, which makes me nuts. It doesn't look like prose, it looks like architecture!

Sure, a few, right off the top of my head: Personal names are cap'ized, &quot;Colette&quot; as are place names &quot;Chamonix&quot; &quot; Hotel Plaza Athenee&quot;
Salutations-&quot;Ma Cherie&quot; &quot;Mon Cheri&quot; &quot;Monsieur le Maire&quot; &quot;Mon Cher Roger&quot; &quot;Ma Chere Denise&quot;

also in closings: &quot;Veuillez agreer, Monsieur, mes sinceres salutations&quot; (please accept, Sir, my sincere greetings) (accent marks deleted)

&quot;Embrasse tout le monde pour moi&quot; (give my love to everyone)

I think what St. Cirq is saying is correct-about foreign languages and peoples in romance languages-but place names-cities and countries- ARE capitalized. Also, in French, you do not capitalize the months of the year, whereas in English you do: &quot;le 5 avril&quot; &quot;April 5th&quot;

My question was simply: in English, do we capitalize the words &quot;french&quot; &quot;spanish&quot; &quot;italian&quot; &amp; if so, when? When referring the the French people? french, as in the language? I have gotten lots of mixed answers on this in the past, ans thought I'd try my luck here.

Hi nina,

All proper nouns are capitalized in American English.

France, French, the French, French kiss, French fries

Nina:

I think I answered your question very explicitly, but I'll do so again. Yes, when writing in English you capitalize French, Spanish, Afghan, the British, Moravians, the German language, a Dutch tulip, Belgian beer, etc. Any dictionary will make this clear.

You do NOT capitalize the equivalents in the romance languages.

Everything you need to know about the German language, from the pen of Mark Twain.

http://www.bdsnett.no/klaus/twain/

Ira- thanks, I was getting myself confused. StCirq, there's no need to be nasty. Sorry if the it exasperated you so, this is for fun after all. But I appreciate the effort.

My understanding is that you DON'T have to use the personal pronouns in Italian the way you do in French. It's more like Spanish in that way.You use the personal pronouns as needed for clarity or emphasis.

All I know is, when writing French, which words to capitalize is NOT my biggest problem! I do envy those of you who have a facility with language. I should, but I don't. :-(

Hi, try

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

for some purely conversational help in EU languages. Totally useful stuff (&amp; free) . . .

Aargh!
I just realized that the whole pronoun thing has been discussed ad infinitum on another thread!